Anna Rigatelli obtained her Master’s Degree in Medical, Molecular and Cellular Biotechnologies from San Raffaele University in 2019 with a thesis on IL-12-inducible lentiviral vector (LV)-based hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPC) gene therapy under the supervision of Prof. Luigi Naldini. In 2019 she joined the group of Sebastien Jaillon at Humanitas Research Hospital in Milan, where she was enrolled in the Molecular and Experimental Medicine PhD program.

Her PhD project has been focused on a subset of unconventional T cells at the crossroad between innate and adaptive immunity. This population defined as double negative alpha beta T cells (DNT⍺β) is characterized by the expression of an alpha-beta TCR and lack the expression of the co- receptors CD4 and CD8. Although DNT⍺β cells were described to display an antitumor activity in preclinical models, this population is poorly defined. During her PhD Anna explored the biology and immunobiology of DNT⍺β in steady state and cancer combining multi color flow cytometry analysis, pre-clinical models, analysis of patient’s samples and RNA sequencing.

After obtaining her PhD Degree in March 2023, Anna is continuing to study the biology and role of unconventional T cells as post-doctoral researcher.